Viewed – 10 January 2008  DVD

Well what can I say about this?  Its fast, frantic, very silly but above all else heaps of fun, as long as you allow yourself to experience some of the craziest, but imaginative action sequences you’re ever likely to see.  Clive Owen retreads old ground reprising his mean ass bad-boy-with-a-gun from Sin City, all smoldering and gruff voiced, who is somehow involved in a plot to kill a new born baby after witnessing an attempted murder by a bunch of hit men lead by a grimacing, scenery-chewing Paul Giamatti.  Cue stylish scatter-shot camera work, slow motion diving through the air gun play, ridiculous (see: impossible) stunts, and more dead bad guys than you can shake a stick at (or a gun, held in both hands, with a never-ending supply of bullets).  Yes this is John Woo on speed, which I know has become a cliché all of its own, especially when imitators these days can deliver the goods in a way the once revered master of action can only dream of. 

So this breathlessly paced, heavy-metal themed actioner does have a plot of sorts, too convoluted for me to really care about (or have time to care about between noisy gun fights / car chases etc), but all this doesn’t matter when a) it looks brilliant throughout, b) you get to swoon over the delicious Monica Bellucci and c) – oh, who cares about C?  Here comes another gun fight!!

It all reminded me of Desperado, another stylish gun-wielding actioner of the mid nineties that had a simple story and a hard as nails lead guy – and some of the one liners, although corny made me laugh – and really, there’s a pace and enthusiasm to the whole thing, that unless you’re in a coma or something, it can’t help but leave you grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

Verdict:  3 /5